The cast and director of Boyhood hit the red carpet at the SXSW Film Festival

Richard Linklater’s latest, Boyhood, received rave reviews after premiering at Sundance earlier this year, and for good reason: It’s a wonderful film. The story follows significant moments in a fictional Texas family’s life, yet the focus is primarily on the son, Mason, played by newcomer and native Austinite Ellar Coltrane. Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette play his divorced parents, while Linklater cast his daughter, Loralei, to be Mason’s wickedly funny older sister.

While the premise of the story seems simple, this isn’t your typical indie film. In fact, it took Linklater 12 years to make, with shoots taking place a few days every year. (The total time it took to shoot the film was 39 days.) Coltrane was cast at age 6 and worked on the project until he was a freshman in college. We got a chance to speak to him, Hawke and Linklater at last Sunday’s screening at the SXSW Film Festival. The following is what went down at the Paramount Theatre.

When you were cast in this, did you know who Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke were?Ellar Coltrane: I don’t think so. I think my parents had to educate me a little bit. I remember specifically them sitting me down and saying, “These are the movies you need to watch so you know who these people are.” I might have seen Dazed and Confused, but I don’t even know.

Was there a moment during filming when it dawned on you what you were involved in?EC: Yeah, definitely. In the second half, in the latter of the 12 years, as I got older, I just realized how massive it was and how big of a part of my life the project was.

Having seen the movie, what’s it like to watch yourself grow up on screen?EC: It’s indescribable. It’s so surreal and very painful a lot of times. It was really emotional the first few times I watched it. It’s like nothing else.

Were there any awkward periods that you remember going through that came up for you when watching the movie?EC: Absolutely. [Laughs.] There are a lot of awkward phases reflected on the film. And, what I realized the other day is that there are even worse phases that were in-between those that I’m thankful were not reflected. Like, that’s bad, but I remember the summer before that, and I’m glad I wasn’t captured during that time.

So what was it like working with Linklater?EC: Just wonderful. He’s so delightful and grounded. I’ve done some minor work with other directors, and I realize I’m very spoiled having worked with him for so long. He’s great.

This was such a long commitment. Twelve years is hard to get actors to commit, were you ever worried about people wanting to op out?Richard Linklater: Ethan was trying to quit. Every year I had to threaten him. [Laughs.]Ethan Hawke: Basically, I just demanded more and more money.RL: I know. All of our budget went to his extortion demands.

Didn’t your daughter want you to kill off her character at one point?RL: Yeah. About year three or four, the Harry Potter years, she requested I kill her off. I said, “Nah, that’s just too dramatic. This film, it’s not that dramatic. No, you can’t quit.” And as she got older, she realized she was getting paid a little every year. What teenager can’t use that SAG minimum? I was like, “That’s actually a lot of money. Thank you, union.” Then she’s like, “When are we shooting?” Not that she wanted to work hard.

How did your being a father inform your portrayal of this role?EH: I think in a weird way, the luxury of working on this movie was that it’s a forum to really think about not only your own childhood but about how to be a parent. We all get dragged through our parents’ lives.

This is a depiction of that?EH: This is a movie about that. So it’s impossible, I think, for somebody to watch the movie and not think about their experiences as a parent or as a child. That’s what the movie is fundamentally about. Everybody is trying to do their best. The kids are trying to do their best, the parents—it’s so difficult for all of us.

Can you talk a little bit about what it’s like to watch yourself age on screen.EH: You know, it’s funny, you guys all talk about like the kids as being the only ones that do that. When we showed the movie for the first time at Sundance, and I actually had this embarrassing thought, which is when it started, I thought, Wow, I still look really good. And then I realized, Oh, that was a long time ago. It’s a strange thing. I start thinking of all the movies that first scene is before. That was four years before Brooklyn’s Finest.RL: Yeah, that was right when we were doing Before Sunset. You were the same guy in Before Sunset. We started [Boyhood] a year before, but he wasn’t in the first episode of this. Ethan had the observation early on, when I was showing him an early cut, whatever years we were at the time, he looks and goes, “Wow, they grow up. We age.” [Laughs.]